Jewish Drinking’s September 2026 Texts-and-Tasting event featured an exploration of Beverages for Jewish Wedding Blessings. Led by Rabbi Drew Kaplan, this event was the third in a row of a summer series on Jewish weddings.
Beginning with Maimonides, the exploration continued through not only other Medieval normative rabbinic writings, but also the Shulhan Arukh and beyond on how necessary beer or wine is for either of the two sets of blessings for Jewish weddings – Birkat Erusin and Birkat Nissuin. The sources explored are available here.
And since it wouldn’t be Texts-and-Tasting without some actual tasting, our learning was accompanied by five bourbons that medalled at the inaugural Kosher Spirits Awards, coming from Bardstown Bourbon Company, BourbonRabbi, KOVAL Distillery, and Thresh & Winnow, providing participants with plenty to sip, compare, and discuss along the way.
The evening capped off a three-part summer journey through Jewish wedding drinking, following our explorations of July’s event on Fasting at One’s Wedding and August’s Breaking the Glass Under the Ḥuppah at Jewish Weddings.
October’s Texts-and-Tasting will explore Drinking in the Book of Ecclesiastes.
